Art, words, and the occasional octopus

Day 95: The Falcon’s Eye

I wrote a book once called The Falcon’s Eye. It’s a high fantasy coming-of-age novel about a girl who discovers a past she didn’t know she had, finds herself in a world that she fought all her life to avoid, and faces difficult choices where her decision could alter the fate of an entire realm, and she must choose between what is right and what is easy.

(Yes, I’m being vague on purpose. Where’s the fun otherwise?)

The official back cover blurb, however is below.

The queen of Aundour is assassinated. The Falcon’s Eye, a talisman of great power, is sealed within the infant heir to the throne, who is exiled for her own safety.

Sixteen years later, land pirate Ava is rescued from execution by a stranger who reveals that she’s being hunted for more than her crimes. Aundour’s sworn enemy seeks the amulet hidden beneath her birthmark, and the only place where she will be safe is with her real father, the king who sent her away.

A dormant power now awakens within her, a destructive force too strong for an untrained mind to handle. But Ava never asked for magic, wealth, or even a father. All she wants is to escape the lords and liars trying to control her. When the web of evil closes in, and Aundour’s fate hangs by a thread, Ava must make a choice: her need for freedom, or the kingdom doomed to fall without her?

I first started writing this as a pet project when I was fifteen, and it grew and grew along with me until I published it three years ago. That was seven years of immersion in a vast world with a complex history, for which there were maps drawn, family trees marked up, and piles of research done.

It’s been a while since I returned to Ava’s story and her world, since I’ve been traversing other fictional ones of my making, but I definitely will come back and learn more about what happens with her after the end of The Falcon’s Eye.

A few fun facts:

I’ve sketched Ava a thousand times over while testing character designs, but frankly, this is the first time I’m seeing her in color.

Ava is a Firechild and when she puts her mind to it, the flames that come from her tend to be white, but she works just as well with regular ones.

It’s one thing to design a castle to write, and quite another to draw it out. I’ve described the castle in Veïlas from the outside and inside, with its rooms, courtyards, open areas, and passageways, and it was a delight to paint.I would have detailed it a lot more, but my tiny brush stopped cooperating and I had to ice my hand, so I only got this much out of it. Still, this was one of the places where a degree in architecture came in handy.

There’s a wolf. The wolf is a character and was a delight to write. Note that he’s not always a wolf.

My favorite characters to write were Garon (“Wayfarer, my dear. New shore, new name. You of all people should understand that.”), who is the bard in the purple cap and cape, and Arne Rannhain, the noble knight in white who is stiff-backed, judgmental as hell, and delightfully complex.

There are a lot more characters in this and I would have loved to include a few more, but I do only have so much space and not nearly enough time.